California State University Northridge Athletics
California State University at Northridge
Jessup University (Calif.)
17th-Ranked CSUN Hosts Jessup University to Cap Non-Conference Season
3/18/2026 1:34:00 PM | Men's Volleyball
CSUN THIS WEEK:
MATCH #18
Jessup University Warriors (6-9) @Â #17Â CSUN Matadors (11-6)
Thursday, Mar. 19, 2026Â - 6:00Â p.m. PT
Premier America Credit Union Arena - Northridge, Calif.
ESPN+
Live Stats
In-game XÂ updates:Â @CSUNMensVB
CSUNÂ Men's Volleyball Media Notes
FORÂ STARTERS
No. 17 CSUN (11-6, 0-2 Big West) continues its season-long, four-match homestand this week, hosting Jessup University (6-9) on Wednesday (Mar. 19). The match marks the Matadors' final non-conference match of the season before CSUN returns to Big West play against No. 2 Long Beach State next week (Mar. 27). Last week, the Matadors split a pair of matches to open the homestand, defeating Princeton in four sets, before falling to No. 12 UC San Diego in five sets.
FOLLOW YOUR MATADORS ONLINE
Thursday's match will stream live on ESPN+ and will have live stats (links at GoMatadors.com). Cooper Hopkins will be on the call for three of CSUN's final four matches of the season, beginning Thursday against Jessup at 6 p.m.
Fans can also follow CSUN Matador men's volleyball online at the official home of CSUN athletics, www. GoMatadors.com for related links to the match, including any live stats, audio and video. Fans are also encouraged to check the CSUN Athletics Department's official X feed (@ GoMatadors) and the volleyball-specific feed (@CSUNMensVB) for news and notes throughout the week as well as updates of matches in progress.
CSUNÂ REMAINSÂ 17TH IN LATESTÂ AVCAÂ MEN'S VOLLEYBALL POLL
After opening the season ranked 11th in the AVCA preseason poll, the Matadors (11-6) remained 17th for the sixth straight poll in this week's National Collegiate Poll. CSUN, which earned 238 points to rank 11th in the initial poll of the season, earned 107 points this week after splitting a pair of home matches last week. The Matadors have now been ranked in all 11 polls in 2026. CSUN, which was ranked in all 18 polls last season, finished in the top 10 in the final poll of the 2025 season, the Matadors' first top 10 final ranking since 2018.Â
Since reclaiming a spot in the AVCA national poll in 2023, CSUN has now been ranked in the top 20 for 46 consecutive polls and 56 of the last 59 AVCA national polls since the 2023 season. CSUN has been a fixture in the national polls historically, having previously been ranked in the AVCA Top-15 for 62 consecutive weeks and 262 of the last 289 weekly polls dating back to the 2002 season.Â
UCLA (18-0) remained the top-ranked team for the 11th straight week, collecting all 25 first-place votes and 500 total points. Long Beach State (14-2) remained second after receiving 469 points, followed by Hawai'i (17-3), USC (10-3), and UC Irvine (13-3). The remainder of this week's top 10 includes Pepperdine (13-4), Loyola Chicago (13-5), UC Santa Barbara (10-7), Ball State (17-3), and BYU (15-6). The second half of this week's top-20 poll includes Lindenwood (15-3), McKendree (12-7), UC San Diego (11-7), Stanford (9-8), Lewis (13-9), Penn State (11-7), the Matadors (11-6), Ohio State (10-9), Purdue Fort Wayne (9-7) and NJIT (12-6).
SCOUTING JESSUP UNIVERSITY
Jessup University (6-9) has dropped five straight matches since defeating Simpson University, 3-1 in Redding on Feb. 22. The Warriors, who compete in the MPSF in men's volleyball, have since lost to No. 6 BYU and twice to both No. 7 Pepperdine and No. 2 Long Beach State. The Warriors, hitting .260 as a team, are led by senior OH Jan Lopuch who averages 3.33 kills per set. Lopuch had a team-high six kills in a 3-0 loss to Long Beach State last Friday (Mar. 13).
All-time series: Thursday's non-conference match is just the second all-time between the Matadors and Warriors. CSUN claimed the first meeting in 2025 in four sets in Northridge behind 10 kills (.615) from Stilian Delbosov. The Matadors out-hit the Warriors .420 to .253 in the win.
PHILLIPS REMAINS BIG WEST KILLS LEADER
CSUN junior opposite Jalen Phillips maintained the Big West lead in kills per set this week at 3.90. Phillips, who has held the conference lead for the past month-plus, has a team-high 191 kills over 49 sets this season. Phillips leads second-place George Bruening of UC Santa Barbara (3.71) and third-place Andrej Jankovic (3.53) this week. Phillips, who also leads the Big West points per set at 4.53, moved up to seventh in hitting percentage (.350) and is also 17th in blocks per set (0.69). In the national statistics, he ranks eighth in points (), ninth in kills (), 23rd in hitting percentage (), 32nd in attacks per set (7.65), and 95th in blocks per set (0.68).
With 38 kills in two matches last week, Phillips is now within 13 kills of becoming the 16th player in program history with 1,000 kills. Last week, he moved into ninth place on the CSUN Rally Scoring era top 10 in kills, passing both Kevin McKniff (978 from 2007-10) and Joe Nargi (979 from 2001-03). Phillips is now eighth in career attempts with 2,065.
MATADORS CAP NON-CONFERENCE SEASON
Thursday's match against Jessup marks CSUN's final non-conference match of the 2026 season. The Matadors improved to 11-4 in non-conference play with last week's 3-1 win over Princeton. Three of CSUN's four non-conference losses have come against ranked teams with Lindenwood now sitting 11th in the rankings. Last season, the Matadors finished the non-conference portion of the season with a 13-5 record.
CSUN QUICK SETS
A pair of Matadors reached career milestones last week as both Hank Kaufman and Shane Nhem passed 100 career kills. Kaufman made his sixth and seventh starts of the season last week, putting down 21 kills to move his career total to 117. Kaufman is now averaging 1.89 kills per set in 62 sets as a Matador. Nhem, a career .448 hitter, had 14 kills in CSUN's two matches last week to give him 104 career kills over 71 career sets ... Junior libero Chris Karnezis scooped up a season-high 12 digs in CSUN's 3-1 win over Princeton last week. Karnezis came within one dig of his career-high after posting 13 digs on two occasions, most recently at UC San Diego in 2025 ... After Phillips' team-high 222 points, junior Jordan Lucas is also over 100 points for the season. Lucas has 130.5 points heading into this week's match against Jessup. Joao Avila is also within three points of 100 with 97.0 through 17 matches ... With last week's 3-2 loss to No. 12 UC San Diego dropped CSUN to 1-7 in eight Big West home openers - the 2020 Big West season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
CSUN IN THE BIG WEST STATS RANKINGS
In this week's Big West statistical rankings, the Matadors remained second in both kills per set at 12.78 and assists per set at 11.85. CSUN also remained third this week in hitting percentage (.354), fourth in digs per set (7.58) and opponent hitting percentage (.231), fifth in points per set (15.96), and sixth in aces per set (1.18) and blocks per set (1.95).
Individually, in addition to Phillips, Jordan Lucas ranks eighth in hitting percentage (.324), 11th in kills per set (2.81), and 13th in points per set (3.11). Owen Douphner remains second in assists per set (9.93), and is also 19th in digs per set (1.24) and 20th in blocks per set (0.64), while Grayson Albers is 20th in aces per set (0.25). With 19 kills and one error on 25 swings in two matches last week Albers upped his season hitting percentage to a season-best .615, which would lead the nation with enough attempts to qualify. UC Irvine's Trevor Clark is currently leading the nation at .543.
MATADORS IN THE BIG WEST Â
The 2026 season marks CSUN's ninth as a member of the Big West in men's volleyball. With an 0-2 regular season record in 2026, the Matadors are 18-54 (.250) in 72 Big West matches over eight-plus seasons since the conference's inaugural campaign in 2018. CSUN finished 5-5 in the first Big West season in 2018 before finishing 3-7 in 2019, 2024, and 2025, 2-8 in 2021 and 1-9 in both 2022 and 2023. Prior to 2018, the Matadors played 25 seasons as a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) from 1993-2017 and 16 seasons in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (WIVA) from 1977-92.
EDWARDS EARNS 50TH WIN AS CSUN HEAD COACH
Theo Edwards earned the 50th win of his CSUN career when the Matadors swept Edward Waters on Jan. 30. Edwards is in his fourth season as head coach in 2026 (16th season at CSUNÂ overall) after leading the Matadors back into the AVCA national rankings in his first three seasons. Named the successor to Jeff Campbell on Dec. 9, 2022, Edwards owns a career record of 54-49 (.524) in his fourth season. CSUN finished 12-16 in Edwards's first season (1-9 in the Big West) in 2023 and the Matadors have steadily improved in each of Edwards's three seasons. CSUN finished 13-16 in 2024 and 18-11 in 2025. Under Edwards' leadership, CSUN earned a No. 7 national ranking on Mar. 10 of the 2025 season, its highest national ranking in seven seasons. The Matadors finished the 2025 season with a No. 9 national ranking, also their best since 2018.
LOOKING AHEAD
Following Thursday's match against Jessup University, CSUN caps its four-match homestand against No. 2 Long Beach State on Friday (Mar. 27). The Matadors then make a return trip to Long Beach on Mar. 28, before playing home-and-home series' against No. 8 UC Santa Barbara (Apr. 2-4) and UC Irvine (Apr. 9-11). CSUN closes the regular season with two matches at No. 3 Hawai'i (Apr. 17-18).
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